In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of the conversation between Sage Vyaasa and Yudishtra which explained several aspects of “Maranam” (Death). Sage Vyaasa quotes the narrative of Sage Naarada to King Akampana, wherein, Sage Naarada is in turn quoting the conversation between Mrithyu Devata and Yama-Dharma-Raja. As Mrithyu Devata is assigned the task of executing death in this world, she shivers with fear. However, Yama-Dharma-Raja consoles her and explains to her that death in this world is inevitable and everybody who takes birth in this world has to die some day. There cannot be a situation wherein one lives continuously without death. As part of this context, we’ve seen today’s context too – We would have seen our own aged grandparents at the age of 85-90 years. We would see how they suffer with physical ailments during this age. Moreover, people around them, including their own sons and daughters, would start fretting about their existence in this world beyond a certain age. Even though we might say that they are our own parents / grandparents, we would eventually start losing interest in them as they get older. This is the reality of life and we should understand this and move on.
Moving forward from here thus, Mrithyu Devata leaves the abode of Yama-Dharma-Raja and goes on intense penance in several parts of our Bhaarata Desha. Mrithyu Devata goes to the Himalayas to perform penance and with the intensity of doing it, she loses a lot of body weight. She becomes very slim and thin as she finally returns back to Bhagawan Brahma. As Mrithyu Devata arrives once again at the Satya Lokha, Bhagawan Brahma is shocked to see her new physical form. Bhagawan Brahma asks her thus, “Oh Mrithyu Devata! What happened to you? Why have you reduced your physical form like this? Why did you perform such an intense penance? It wasn’t required wasn’t it?” For this, Mrithyu Devata gives a very important reply to Bhagawan Brahma thus, “Oh Bhagawan Brahma! There’s a reason behind doing this – If I’m in my original fat form, I would be killing more and more people in the world. This would result in a huge death rate, which would exceed the birth rate of living beings. This shouldn’t happen. Hence, if I’m trimming my physical form, I shall induce death into living beings at a slower pace. This would ensure that the balance between birth and death is steadily maintained in the world!”
Perhaps, this is the reason why human beings like us are given an average lifespan of around 90 years! Thus, we can see here that if we’ve to have a greater lifespan in this world, Mrithyu Devata should trim down her physical form, and this is exactly what she has done. Probably if she would have been in her original fat form, she would have induced death much faster and maybe our lifespan would have come down to say 40 years or so! However, Mrithyu Devata continues further thus, “Oh Bhagawan Brahma! Even though I’m tasked to induce death, I’m not going to do it in a fair and an even manner. I’m going to categorise people into different varieties and according to that, I’m going to induce death faster or slower! Oh Bhagawan Brahma! Please grant me a boon in regards to this!”
As Mrithyu Devata requests thus, Bhagawan Brahma questions her regarding the categorization of people that she intends to do. So for today, let us understand up to this point and in the next episode, we shall witness Mrithyu Devata’s important categorization of people for whom she is going to induce death more quickly than others! Stay tuned for an interesting accord! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 